Africa

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(geography) The second largest continent, with an area of 11,700,000 square miles (30,420,000 square kilometers); bisected midway by the Equator, above and below which it shows symmetry of climate and vegetation zones.

Second largest continent on Earth. It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean and is divided almost equally by the Equator. Area: 11,717,370 sq mi (30,348,110 sq km). Population (2001 est.): 816,524,000. Africa is composed largely of a rigid platform of ancient rocks that underlies vast plateau regions in the interior. Its average elevation is about 2,200 ft (670 m), but elevations range from 19,340 ft (5,895 m) at Mount Kilimanjaro to 515 ft (157 m) below sea level at Lake Assal. The Sahara, the world's largest contiguous desert, occupies more than one-fourth of the total land area. The continent's hydrology is dominated by the Nile River in the north, the Niger River in the west, and the Congo River in central Africa. Less than one-tenth of the land area is arable, while nearly one-fourth is forested or wooded. The peoples of Africa probably speak more languages than those of any other continent. Arabic is predominant from Egypt to Mauritania and in The Sudan. Northern Africans speak a family of languages known as Afro-Asiatic. The vast majority of sub-Saharan peoples speak Bantu languages of the Niger-Congo family, while smaller numbers in central Africa speak Nilo-Saharan languages and in southern Africa Khoisan languages. Peoples of European descent are found mostly in the south; Dutch (Boer) migrations began in the 17th century, and the English first settled in what is now Kenya and Zimbabwe in the 19th century. Africa as a whole is a developing region. Agriculture is the key sector of the economy in most countries. Diamond and gold mining are especially important in the south, while petroleum and natural gas are produced particularly in the west. Most African governments are controlled by the military or a single party. Many legal systems combine laws introduced by European powers during the colonial era with traditional law, though North African countries derive many laws from Islam. African leaders have sought to develop a pan-African approach to the continent's political and military affairs through the Organization of African Unity and its successor, the African Union. Africa is widely recognized as the birthplace of humankind. Archaeological evidence indicates that the continent has been inhabited by humans and their hominid forebears for some 4,000,000 years or more. Anatomically modern humans are believed to have appeared about 100,000 years ago in the eastern region of sub-Saharan Africa. Somewhat later these early humans spread into northern Africa and the Middle East and, ultimately, to the rest of the world. Africa's first great historical kingdom, Egypt, arose along the Nile 3000 and flourished for nearly 3,000 years. The Phoenicians established a colony at Carthage and controlled the western Mediterranean for nearly 600 years. While northern Africa was dominated by the Romans for several centuries, the first known empire in western Africa was Ghana (5th11th century ). Muslim empires included those of Mali ( 12501400) and Songhai ( 14001591). In eastern and central Africa the emphasis was on trade with Arabia, and several powerful city-states, including Mogadishu and Mombasa, were established. The Portuguese explored the western coast in the 15th century. Before the late 19th century, Europe showed little interest in colonizing Africa, but by 1884 European countries had begun a scramble to partition the continent, and by 1920 much of it was under colonial rule. Anticolonial sentiment developed gradually, becoming widespread after 1950, and one by one the colonies became independent, the last in 1990. Political instability, refugee problems, famine, and AIDS are the chief problems facing the continent at the start of the 21st century.

For more information on Africa, visit Britannica.com.

A continent that straddles the Equator, extending between 37°N and 35°S. It is the second largest continent, exceeded by Eurasia. The area, shared by 55 countries, is 11,700,000 mi² (30,300,00 km²), approximately 20% of the world's total land area. Despite its large area, it has a simple geological structure, a compact shape with a smooth outline, and a symmetrical distribution of climate and vegetation.

Africa has few inlets or natural harbors and a small number of offshore islands that are largely volcanic in origin. Madagascar is the largest island, with an area of 250,000 mi² (650,000 km²).

Africa is primarily a high interior plateau bounded by steep escarpments. These features show evidence of the giant faults created during the drift of neighboring continents. The surface of the plateau ranges from 4000–5000 ft (1200–1500 m) in the south to about 1000 ft (300 m) in the Sahara. These differences in elevation are particularly apparent in the Great Escarpment region in southern Africa, where the land suddenly drops from 5000 ft (1500 m) to a narrow coastal belt. Although most of the continent is classified as plateau, not all of its surface is flat. Rather, most of its physiographic features have been differentially shaped by processes such as folding, faulting, volcanism, erosion, and deposition. See also Escarpment; Fault and fault structures; Plateau.

The rift valley system is one of the most striking features of the African landscape. Sliding blocks have created wide valleys 20–50 mi (30–80 km) wide bounded by steep walls of variable depth and height. Within the eastern and western branches of the system, there is a large but shallow depression occupied by Lake Victoria. See also Rift valley.

Several volcanic features are associated with the rift valley system. The most extensive of these are the great basalt highlands that bound either side of the rift system in Ethiopia. These mountains rise over 10,000 ft (3000 m), with the highest peak, Ras Dashan, reaching 15,158 ft (4500 m). There are also several volcanic cones, including the most renowned at Mount Elgon (14,175 ft; 4321 m); Mount Kenya (17,040 ft; 5194 m); and Mount Kilimanjaro, reaching its highest point at Mount Kibo (19,320 ft; 5889 m). Mounts Kenya and Kilimanjaro are permanently snowcapped. See also Basalt.

Since the Equator transects the continent, the climatic conditions in the Northern Hemisphere are mirrored in the Southern Hemisphere. Nearly three-quarters of the continent lies within the tropics and therefore has high temperatures throughout the year. Frost is uncommon except in mountainous areas or some desert areas where nighttime temperatures occasionally drop below freezing. These desert areas also record some of the world's highest daytime temperatures, including an unconfirmed record of 136.4°F (58°C) at Azizia, Tripoli. See also Equatorial currents.

Africa can be classified into broad regions based on the climatic conditions and their associated vegetation and soil types. The tropical rainforest climate starts at the Equator and extends toward western Africa. The region has rainfall up to 200 in. (500 cm) per year and continuously high temperatures averaging 79°F (26°C). The eastern equatorial region does not experience these conditions because of the highlands and the presence of strong seasonal winds that originate from southern Asia.

The areal extent of the African rainforest region (originally 18%) has dwindled to less than 7% as a result of high rates of deforestation. Despite these reductions, the region is still one of the most diverse ecological zones in the continent. See also Rainforest.

Extensive savanna grasslands are found along the Sudanian zone of West Africa, within the Zambezian region and the Somalia-Masai plains. Large areas such as the Serengeti plains in the Somalia-Masai plains are home to a diverse range of wild animals.

The tropical steppe forms a transition zone between the humid areas and the deserts. This includes the area bordering the south of the Sahara that is known as the Sahel, the margins of the Kalahari basin, and the Karoo grasslands in the south.

The structural evolution of the continent has much to do with the drainage patterns. Originally, most of the rivers did not drain into the oceans, and many flowed into the large structural basins of the continent. However, as the continental drift occurred and coasts became more defined, the rivers were forced to change courses, and flow over the escarpments in order to reach the sea. Several outlets were formed, including deep canyons, waterfalls, cataracts, and rapids as the rivers carved out new drainage patterns across the landscape. Most of the rivers continue to flow through or receive some of their drainage from the basins, but about 48% of them now have a direct access into the surrounding oceans. The major rivers are the Nile, Congo (Zaire), Niger, and Zambezi. See also River.

The tremendous diversity in wildlife continues to be one of the primary attractions of this continent. Africa is one of the few remaining places where one can view game fauna in a natural setting. There is a tremendous diversity in species, including birds, reptiles, and large mammals. Wildlife are concentrated in central and eastern Africa because of the different types of vegetation which provide a wide range of habitats.

Africa is not a densely populated continent. With an estimated population of 743,000,000, its average density is 64 per square mile (26 per square kilometer). However, some areas have large concentrations, including the Nile valley, the coastal areas of northern and western Africa, the highland and volcanic regions of eastern Africa, and parts of southern Africa. These are mostly areas of economic or political significance.

Introduction

It is almost impossible to talk about a unified history of photography in Africa, as there have been so many cultural responses to the medium, and so many national and regional styles. Early 21st-century photographic practices there are amongst the most complex and vibrant imaging cultures in the world, embracing intersections between the global and the local. Many draw on long traditions of depicting the human body in sculptural and graphic forms.

The history of photography in Africa begins with the colonial introduction of the medium. Much photography was integrally linked to exploration and the development of colonial infrastructures. Imaging also drew on established ideas about Africa. Some were related to concepts of race and culture: in North Africa, for example, to a long Orientalist tradition; whereas in parts of sub-Saharan Africa an ethnographic tradition often became absorbed into general colonial practice. Photographs by colonial photographers circulated widely, and photographs of Africa could be bought in London, Paris, or New York. However, by the late 19th century many African photographers were developing their own businesses, providing images for both local and colonial clients. From this tradition has emerged the wealth of African photography: studio and documentary work, photojournalism and arts practice, and an associated photographic culture including archives of the post-colonial African nation-states, festivals like the Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine (since 1994), and publications.Elizabeth EdwardsAnthology of African and Indian Ocean Photography (Eng. edn. 1999). Deutsch, J. G., Probst, P., and Schmidt, H. (eds.), African Modernities (2002).

West Africa

Photography arrived in the form of Western itinerant daguerreotypists working the main coastal cities, and colonial photographers accompanying expeditions. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the daguerreotype had reached Freetown by 1845; the earliest surviving examples prove its presence by the mid-1850s. From the late 1860s to the 1880s, permanent studios run by African photographers were established in several coastal cities: St-Louis, Conacry, Freetown, Monrovia, Abidjan, Accra, Lomé, and Lagos, with entrepreneurs like the Lutterodt family operating in several locations. While colonial photographers served political and administrative purposes, these studios met private and local needs.

West African studio photography expanded rapidly in the late 19th century, challenged only by the postcard as the dominant photographic genre. Inland cities such as Bamako got their first permanent establishments. Pioneers included Alex Agbaglo Acolatse (1880-1975) in Lomé, Meïssa Gaye in St-Louis, and Alphonso Lisk-Carew in Freetown. While often trained by Europeans, and initially passing on European studio traditions, African portrait photographers eventually developed distinctive styles, pursuing modernity in their own way. Local artists, for example, contributed painted studio backgrounds depicting local city scenes. West African dyed cloth or woven mats also become popular as props or backdrops. Studio portraiture in 20th-century West Africa increasingly manifested African forms of self-expression and ways of seeing.

The period immediately after the Second World War, with independence approaching, was a golden age for studio photography. Often teachers, or ex-soldiers of the colonial armies, this generation of practitioners included influential, visually sophisticated, and eventually celebrated figures such as Seydou Keïta in Bamako, Mali, Mama Casset (1908-92) in Dakar, Senegal, and Cornélius Yao Augustt Azaglo (b. 1924) in Korhogo, Côte d'Ivoire. Many, like Keïta, worked exclusively in the studio; others, like Augustt Azaglo, travelled from village to village equipped only with a camera and a simple backdrop. West African studio photography is a collaborative enterprise: sitters define who they are or want to be; the photographer colludes; the studio is a space of desire and fantasy. Another Bamako professional, Malick Sidibé, also took his camera outside the studio to record the exuberant leisure activities of Malian youth in the early days of independence. The work of these and other photographers countered the products of the once-dominant ‘ethnographic gaze’. Yet their photographs seem sui generis, performing and producing identities rather than reacting against alien, imposed ones. But, as amateur photography spread in the 1970s, black-and-white studio photography declined, revived only partially by the arrival of colour.

Today's West African scene is vibrant. With his detailed and extravagant screens, increasingly sought after by collectors, Philip Kwame Apagya (b. 1958), working in Accra, Ghana, has reinvented colour studio work. The infinitely variable self is the subject of Samuel Fosso's (b. 1962; Bangui, Central African Republic) playfully obsessive after-hours studio self-portraits. Other current photographic projects, often hosted by art institutions, include the DOF-group, and Akinbode Akinbyi's photographic engagement with the vast megalopolis of Lagos, Nigeria, treated as a system rather than a space for particular events. Dorris Haron Kasco (b. 1966; Côte d'Ivoire) also chronicles urban culture, in edgy photographs of the urban other: the street child, the fool, the outcast living in his or her unique and isolated universe.Jan-Erik LundströmViditz-Ward, V., ‘Photography in Sierra Leone, 1850-1918’, Africa, 57 (1987). David, P., Alex A. Acolatse (1880-1975): hommage à l'un des premiers photographes togolais (1993). Foadey, G. E., Pivin, J.-L., and Medoune Seye, B., Mama Casset et les précurseurs de la photographie au Sénégal (1994). Nimis, E., Photographes de Bamako de 1935 à nos jours (1998). Wendl, T., ‘Entangled Traditions: Photography and the History of Media in Southern Ghana’, Res, 39 (2001).

East Africa

The region's first photographers came from both India and Europe c. 1870. In Zanzibar, A. C. Gomez from Goa started the first studio in 1868, building on an established practice in India. Many more studios opened c. 1890, in Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, and Mombasa. William D. Young, who also worked as official photographer for the Ugandan railways, documenting the construction of the Mombasa-Kampala line, founded the famous Dempster Studio in Mombasa (with a branch in Nairobi in 1905).

Western travellers and explorers also photographed in East Africa. Joseph Thomson (1858-95), for example, used the camera not only to record and classify Africans but also, fusing photography and local magic, as ‘medicine’, a ‘soul-stealing machine’, and a ‘magic gun’. Such behaviour provoked considerable indigenous resistance to being photographed. Despite initial opposition, however, photography was widely accepted in coastal towns by c. 1900, in the urban hinterland by the 1920s, and in rural areas by the 1950s-1960s.

As elsewhere, photography was integrated into a range of practices. Colonial administrations used it for control (e.g. in the production of identity cards). Colonial newspapers increasingly incorporated photojournalism. Photographers like Omar Said Bakor (1932-93; Bakor Studio) at Lamu, Kenya, recorded the history of the town in the 1960s and did documentary work on subjects such as mental illness. However, photography's major role was as a ‘theatre of self’, enabling Africans to experience themselves as ‘modern’; indeed, it helped to define a specifically African modernity.

Connecting with existing local visual traditions such as ornamental woodcarving, architectural plasterwork, textiles, and calligraphy, photography developed a variety of specific local histories. The Bakor Studio, for example, used montage to express patrilineal hierarchies, or reworked complex Swahili rhetoric, visualizing proverbs and sayings in photocollages. It also merged the ornamental tradition of Islamic art with photographic portraits in a way that subordinated the portrait to Islamic codes. Furthermore, photography drew on pre-existing ways of encoding cultural meaning. In portraits, clothing and textiles, especially the rectangular printed kanga, printed patterns and proverbs, provided subtexts that turned photographs into ‘silent talkers’. Photography was also shaped, reshaped, and transformed through hybrid alliances with other media such as painting, cinema, and television. In Kenya, N. V. Parekh (Parekh Studio) from the late 1940s created so-called ‘film-style photography’ in which romance was staged according to Hollywood and Bombay film ideals. Likewise, in the Bakor Studio, people were montaged into televisions and radios, literally implanting photography into other media.

From the 1940s to the 1980s, most photographic portraits were produced in studios. However, as manually processed black-and-white photography gave way to quasi-industrial colour, the studios lost their monopolies. But instead of large-scale amateur photography developing, as in Europe, there emerged itinerant photographers with neither formal training nor studios to meet people's photographic needs. They usually worked in small groups, photographing African tourists and migrant workers. Often agents of the colour labs, they competed with the few remaining studios, in the process creating a flourishing popular art form. Some, like the Likoni Ferry Photographers, Mombasa, established their own distinctive style in the 1990s, building small squatter-like portable studios without electricity or running water. Here they combined paintings, tapestry, paperware, flowers, and sofas to create foreign and global fantasy scenarios for their clients.

East African photographs have many social functions. Portraits were integrated into the cult of the dead, rites of passage, and certain traditions of healing and harming. For instance, pictures are taken of the dying or recently deceased. In central Kenya, framed photographs are placed on the closed coffin, replacing the view of the actual corpse. Along the Kenyan coast, continuing the fusion of photography and magic, Islamic healers use photographic portraits for divination, to diagnose sickness, and to identify those harming their clients. Photographic portraits are also widely incorporated in practices of love magic. In Mombasa and Lamu, the act of photographing itself became part of comprehensive rituals of self-presentation such as weddings. Photographs are also used in gift exchange, and circulate widely, especially at Christmas, when migrant workers send pictures home. Photographs hung on sitting-room walls or stored (uncaptioned) in albums display individual reputation and status. They are also used to construct biographies that are constantly reworked—when, for example, women tear ex-husbands from albums—and thus constitute a flexible repository that constantly reflects the network of changing relations. Thus, while photography was integrated into pre-existing traditions, it also occupied new spaces, shaping memories, identities, and subjectivities in new ways.Heike BehrendBehrend, H., ‘Feeling Global: The Likoni Ferry Photographers in Mombasa, Kenya’, African Arts, 33 (2000). Behrend, H., ‘ “To Make Strange Things Possible”: The Photomontages of the Bakor Photo Studio in Lamu, Kenya’, in R. Beck and F. Wittmann (eds.), Close up: Contextualizing African Media (2003).

Southern Africa

Photography reached southern Africa originally via the Indian Ocean, later than other colonial outposts like Australia and India. Jules Léger from Mauritius opened the first studio in Port Elizabeth in 1846. Though some experimentation took place, the dominant photographic modes soon became commercial daguerreotype portraiture and cartes de visite for European colonial consumption.

Photography was soon harnessed to exploration and science in the southern African hinterlands. James Chapman's stereoscopic images of Victoria Falls in 1862 were barely more successful than those attempted on Livingstone's Zambezi expedition of 1858, but his Damaraland work appeared at the 1867 Paris exhibition. Photography was at this stage in the hands of those seeking knowledge of the African. Governor Sir George Grey encouraged photography along with philological and ethnographic research, and such African portraits as made their way into his collection (which later formed the basis of the South African National Library's photographic archive) were usually taken in the aftermath of conquest and colonial annexation. In the case of both the German anthropologist Gustav Fritsch's (1838-1927) splendid portraits of Xhosa leaders, and the famous Bleek-Lloyd photograph collection of indigenous San, this context is not always apparent.

From the late 19th century onwards, black urban elites also had many studio portraits taken but, in the wake of segregation and apartheid's forced removals, relatively few of them survive as collections. Better publicized by the 1930s were the remarkable studies of Kimberley-based Alfred Duggan-Cronin (c.1874-1954). He used migrant workers at the diamond mines as his original subjects, and focused on ethnic types and material culture, couched in a preservationist discourse that was highly aestheticized, at times even dramatized. Later he followed subjects back to their home areas, where he photographed important historical landscapes in both South Africa and neighbouring territories.

Pictorialist and modernist work generated numerous salons from the early 20th century, but photographs of ‘natives’ usually stuck to preservationist conventions, with subjects decked out in traditional dress. This constituted the bulk of Constance Stuart Larabee's (1914-2000) exhibitions, though she also executed numerous commissions to document social change and economic development. Leon Levson's (1883-?) work is now held up as the first serious documentary photography of working and urban life for Africans, but he too moved between commercial and personal projects. The launching of the magazine Drum in 1950 opened a new era in the photographic documentation of urban life for the majority of South Africans. The spate of photographers who helped to fashion the new urban sensibility included Alf Kumalo (b. 1930), Bob Gosani (1834-72), and Peter Magubane. Ernest Cole (1940-90) later produced a searing documentary statement on black conditions in his House of Bondage (1967).

After Drum's heyday, few magazines supported serious photographic work. Leadership was an exception, with David Goldblatt its long-serving main photographer. Goldblatt acted as mentor to the new generation of progressive photographers appearing in the 1980s, by which time Staffrider, Learn and Teach, and Full Frame provided a forum for documentary work. Since the transition to democracy in 1994 new outlets have appeared, ranging from the Centre for South African Photography with its emphasis on ‘art’ photography to the more documentary-and politics-oriented South African History Online founded by Omar Badsha (b. 1945). The South African National Gallery in Cape Town has published, collected, and exhibited much photographic work. The Johannesburg Biennale in 1995 and 1997 was crucial for many photographic artists, while others have been represented at Documenta in Kassel, Germany, the Venice Biennale, and numerous international exhibitions of South African art and photography. Important also are new art schools and private galleries such as Stevenson in Cape Town and Goodman in Johannesburg. In 1998-9, Cape Town hosted an ambitious exhibition/festival of all-African photography, Eye of Africa.

— Patricia Hayes

Featured article: African Studio Photography.

Bibliography

• Bull, M., and Denfield, J., Secure the Shadow: The Story of Cape Photography from its Beginnings to the End of 1870 (1970).
• Lundstrom, J.-E. (ed.), Democracy's Images: Photography and Visual Art after Apartheid (1998)

The Greeks called the African continent, or the part of it they knew, Libya. The name Africa was given by the Carthaginians to the territory around Carthage, and was applied subsequently to all of the known continent; it was retained by the Romans when they made the Carthaginian territory a Roman province after the Third Punic War (146 BC). The province was gradually expanded with the planting of new Roman colonies until under the empire it stretched along the north coast from Cyrenaica (which remained Greek-speaking; see CYRENE) to the Atlantic. The area was heavily urbanized; during the second century AD African senators at Rome (who included the orator Fronto) comprised the largest group from the western provinces. The wealth of Roman Africa was proverbial, and was derived chiefly from the export of vast quantities of corn. In the third century Christianity spread rapidly in the province; Cyprian, Tertullian, and Augustine were all African by birth. For the later history see CARTHAGE. See also EGYPT.

This entry contains two subentries:

North Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa

This entry includes four subentries:
Central Africa
East Africa
North Africa
West Africa

The second-largest continent, after Asia; located south of Europe and bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east by the Indian Ocean.

• Africa has been the home of great civilizations, particularly in Egypt, along the Mediterranean Sea. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European nations colonized much of the continent (see colonialism). In the twentieth century, the colonies became independent countries.
• Africa south of the Sahara is sometimes called sub-Saharan Africa.
• Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit especially hard by HIV/AIDS, drastically decreasing the life expectancy of much of the population.

For the most part, Africa's excessive climate isn't very hospitable for wine grapes. They generally are grown only at the northern and southern ends of the continent, the farthest points from the Equator. See also algeria; morocco; tunisia; south africa.

(Note: The north of Africa, including the Sahara and the Sudan, has been Islamic territory for many centuries. For a discussion of Islamic magic and alchemy, see the entry Arabs. Instances of Arabic sorcery are also discussed in the Semites entry.)

Beliefs and practices thought of as occult in Western society were integral to the traditional tribal religions in the southern two-thirds of Africa, especially those concerning sympathetic magic, the cult of the dead, and witchcraft. During the history of this region, the basically pantheistic and polytheistic religions have also been cross-fertilized with Islamic and Christian teachings, creating new beliefs and modifying old ones. Today a large but undetermined number of Africans follow traditional beliefs involving deities, ghosts, and spirits as well as an array of special powers in nature presided over by the supreme entity adopted from Christianity and Islam. The latter, somewhat remote from everyday problems, is believed to largely operate on humans through the many other deities.

Southern Africa

Among the Zulu and other Bantu tribes of equatorial and southern Africa, witchcraft or malevolent sorcery was traditionally practiced—in secret, for the results of detection were terrible. Tribes instituted a caste of witchfinders assigned the task of tracking down witches.

The nineteenth-century writer Lady Mary Anne Barker observed, "It is not difficult to understand, bearing in mind the superstition and cruelty which existed in remote parts of England not so very long ago; how powerful such women become among a savage people, or how tempting an opportunity they could furnish of getting rid of an enemy. Of course they are exceptional individuals; more observant, more shrewd, and more dauntless than the average fat, hard-working Kaffir women, besides possessing the contradictory mixture of great physical powers and strong hysterical tendencies. They work themselves up to a pitch of frenzy, and get to believe as firmly in their own supernatural discernment as any individual among the trembling circle of Zulus to whom a touch from the whisk they carry is a sentence of instant death."

The Zulu witchfinders were attended by a circle of girls and women who, like a Greek chorus, clapped their hands and repeated a low chant, the measure and rhythm of which changed at times with a stomp and a swing of the arm. Ceremonial dress was also an important part of the witch doctor's role, for such things appealed directly to the imagination of the crowd and prepared onlookers to be readily swayed by the necromancer's devices. One of the witchfinders, Nozinyanga, was especially impressive. Her fierce face, spotted with gouts of red paint on cheek and brow, was partly overshadowed by a helmetlike plume of the tall feathers of the sakabula bird. In her right hand she carried a light sheaf of assegais (spears), and on her left arm was slung a small and pretty shield of dappled oxhide. Her petticoat, made of a couple of large handkerchiefs, was worn kiltwise. From neck to waist she was covered with bead-necklaces, goat's-hair fringes, and the scarlet tassels. Her chest rose and fell beneath the baldric of leopard skin, fastened across with huge brazen knobs, while down her back hung a beautifully dried and flattened skin of an enormous boa constrictor.

When the community had resolved that a certain misfortune was caused by witches, the next step was to find and punish them. For this purpose the king summoned a great meeting, his subjects sitting on the ground in a ring or circle for four or five days. The witchfinders took their places in the center, and as they gradually worked themselves up to an ecstatic state, resembling possession, they lightly switched with their quagga-tail one of the trembling spectators, who was immediately dragged away and butchered, along with all of his or her relatives and livestock. Sometimes a whole kraal was exterminated in this way, so reminiscent of European witch-hunts.

Barker also described a sorceress named Nozilwane, whose wistful glance, she noticed, had in it something uncanny and uncomfortable. She was dressed beautifully in lynx skins folded over and over from waist to knee, the upper part of her body covered by strings of wild beasts' teeth and fangs, beads, skeins of gaily colored yarn, strips of snakeskin, and fringes of Angora goat fleece. Lynx tails hung like lappets on each side of her face, which was overshadowed and almost hidden by a profusion of sakabula feathers. "This bird," Barker commented, "has a very beautiful plumage, and is sufficiently rare for the natives to attach a peculiar value and charm to the tail-feathers; they are like those of a young cock, curved and slender, and of a dark chestnut color, with a white eye at the extreme tip of each feather." Among all this thick, floating plumage were interspersed small bladders and skewers or pins wrought out of tusks. Like the other witchfinders, she wore her hair highly greased and twisted up with twine until it ceased to have the appearance of hair and hung around the face like a thick fringe, dyed deep red.

Bent double and with a catlike gait, Nozilwane came forward. Every movement of her undulating body kept time to the beat of the girls' hands and their low crooning chant. Soon she pretended to find the thing she sought, and with a series of wild pirouettes leaped into the air, shaking her spears and brandishing her shield like a bacchante. Nowamso, another of the party, was determined that her companion should not get all the applause, and she too, with a yell and a leap, sprang into the dance to the sound of louder grunts and harder handclaps. Nowamso was anxious to display her back, where a magnificent snakeskin, studded in a regular pattern with brass-headed nails, floated like a stream. She was attired also in a splendid kilt of leopard skins, decorated with red rosettes, and her dress was considered more careful and artistic than any of the others'. Nozilwane, however, had youth and stamina on her side. The others, although they all joined in and hunted out an imaginary enemy, and in turn exulted over his discovery, soon became breathless and spent and were glad when their attendants led them away to be anointed and to drink water.

Central Africa

The magical beliefs of central and eastern Africa were for the most part connected with beliefs and practices concerning the dead and the honoring of images. When the ghost of a dead person was weary of staying in the bush, many believed that the spirit would come for one of the people over whom they exerted the most influence. The spirit would say to that person, "I am tired of dwelling in the bush, please to build for me in the town a little house as close as possible to your own." The spirit would also instruct him to dance and sing, and accordingly he would assemble the women at night to join in dance and song.

Then, the next day, the people would go to the grave of the obambo, or ghost, and make a crude image, after which a bamboo bier, on which a body is conveyed to the grave, and some of the dust of the ground were carried into a little hut erected near the house of the visited, and a white cloth was draped over the door. A curious element of the ritual, which seems to show that these people had a legend something like the old Greek myth of Charon and the river Styx, was a song chanted during the ceremony with the following line: "You are well dressed, but you have no canoe to carry you across to the other side."

Possession

In most preindustrial cultures, epileptic diseases were assumed to be the result of demoniac possession. In much of Africa the sufferer was supposed to be possessed by Mbwiri, and the person was relieved only by the intervention of the medicine man (priest) or a spirit or deity. In the middle of the street a hut was built for the sufferer, and there he resided, along with the priest and his disciples, until cured, or maddened. Towns-people held a continuous revel, including what seemed like unending dances to the sound of flute and drum, for ten days to two weeks, engaging in much eating and drinking all at the expense of the patient's relatives.

The patient at some point danced, usually feigning madness, until the epileptic attack came on accompanied by a frenzied stare, convulsed limbs, the gnashing of teeth. The man's actions at this point were not ascribed to himself, but to the demon that had control of him. When a cure, real or pretended, had been effected the patient built a little house for the spirit image, avoided certain kinds of food, and performed certain duties. Sometimes the process terminated in the patient's insanity; some were known to run away to the bush, hide from all human beings, and live on the roots and berries of the forest.

One European writer observed of the tribal medicine man, "[They] are priest doctors, like those of the ancient Germans. They have a profound knowledge of herbs, and also of human nature, for they always monopolise the real power in the state. But it is very doubtful whether they possess any secrets save that of extracting virtue and poison from plants. During the first trip which I made into the bush I sent for one of these doctors. At that time I was staying among the Shekani, who are celebrated for their fetish [image]. He came attended by half-a-dozen disciples. He was a tall man dressed in white, with a girdle of leopard's skin, from which hung an iron bell, of the same shape as our sheep bells. He had two chalk marks over his eyes. I took some of my own hair, frizzled it with a burning glass, and gave it to him. He popped it with alacrity into his little grass bag; for white man's hair is fetish of the first order. Then I poured out some raspberry vinegar into a glass, drank a little of it first, country fashion, and offered it to him, telling him that it was blood from the brains of great doctors. Upon this he received it with great reverence, and dipping his fingers into it as if it was snap-dragon, sprinkled with it his fore-head, both feet between the two first toes, and the ground behind his back. He then handed his glass to a disciple, who emptied it, and smacked his lips afterwards in a very secular manner. I then desired to see a little of his fetish. He drew on the ground with red chalk some hieroglyphics, among which I distinguished the circle, the cross, and the crescent. He said that if I would give him a fine 'dush,' he would tell me about it. But as he would not take anything in reason, and as I knew that he would tell me nothing of very great importance in public, negotiations were suspended."

The claims of the priest to possess supernatural powers were seldom questioned. He was not only a doctor and a priest who intervened with the spirits and deities—two capacities in which his influence was necessarily very powerful—he was also a witchfinder, and this office invested him with a truly formidable authority. When a man of worth died, his death was invariably ascribed to witchcraft, and the aid of the priest was invoked to discover the witch.

When a man was sick a long time, his neighbors called Ngembi, and if she could not make him well, they called the priest. He came at night, in a white dress, with cock's feathers on his head, carrying a bell and a little glass. He called two or three of the victim's relatives together. He did not speak, but always looked in his glass. Then he told them that the sickness was not of Mbwiri, nor of a ghost, nor of God, but that it came from a witch. They would say to him, "What shall we do?" He would then go out and say, "I have told you. I have no more to say." They then gave him a dollar's worth of cloth, and every night they gathered together in the street and cried, "I know that man who bewitched my brother. It is good for you to make him well." Then the witch made him well.

If the man did not recover they called the bush doctor from the Shekani country. At night he went into the street; all the people flocked about him. With a tiger skin in his hand, he walked to and fro, until, singing all the while, he laid the tiger skin at the feet of the witch. At the conclusion of his song the people seized the witch and put him or her in chains, saying, "If you don't restore our brother to health, we will kill you."

Western Occultism in Africa

Today more than 100 million Africans follow a form of Islamic faith, and an almost equal number some form of Christianity. In addition to Roman Catholic and Protestant faiths, there are many variant forms of Christianity, and many Christian groups have become independent of the older missionary churches and reorganized as indigenous religious bodies. The religious picture has been confused in recent years as a result of the unrest attending the throwing off of colonial regimes and the establishment of autonomous governments. Another important factor in the changes surfacing on the entire continent, in addition to political reform and upheaval, has been the education of many young Africans at American and European universities. As they travel back to Africa with western ideas and the seeds for a new way of economic survival, the scene is likely to change on all fronts—even regarding their own ancient superstitions and folk legends.

In the midst of these changes, Western occult, metaphysical, and mystical literature has circulated through the continent since the 1920s, especially in South Africa, the central African states, and such West African nations as Ghana and Nigeria. Since World War II there has been a noticeable popular response to such ideas. As early as 1925 the Rosicrucians were present in West Africa, and New Thought was introduced into Africa in the 1930s when several American teachers toured the country and assisted in the formation of the School of Practical Christianity in 1937 (now known as the School of Truth). Today a broad range of such groups as the Church of Religious Science, the Unity School of Christianity, Swedenborgians, and the Church Universal and Triumphant are in existence. In the last two decades, guru-oriented groups such as ECKANKAR, Subud, and the Grail Movement, and some of the new Japanese religions have appeared. Numerous gurus, including Maharishi Mehesh Yogi, Satya Sai Baba, and Guru Maharaj Ji have a following. The New Age movement has been particularly strong in South Africa, mostly among the white population, and has provoked the appearance of a reactionary anti-New Age effort.

Most interesting has been the emergence of new indigenous African metaphysical movements. Typical of these are the Spiritual Fellowship and the Esom Fraternity Company, both operating in Nigeria. The latter, for example, has established a training school specializing in the healing arts and sciences and what is called a "cosmic hospital." The Spiritual Fellowship grew out of the literary efforts of A. Peter Akpan, who has developed an eclectic program of spiritual development aimed at attaining the higher levels of consciousness. Yogi Kane is a Hindu teacher operating in the Senegal, where he teaches what he terms "Egyptian" yoga. East and West come together in these new movements in a mutual affirmation of astrology, divination, spiritual healing, and an esoteric approach to life. These indigenous have also become an avenue for the advancement of women who often must assume a secondary role in traditional African religions as well as in Christianity and Islam.

Sources:

Gardiner, John. The New Age Cult in South Africa. Cape Town: Stuikhof, 1991.

Hackett, Rosalind I. J. "New Age Trends in Nigeria: Ancestral and or Alien Religion?" In Perspectives on the New Age, edited by James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.

——. Religion in Calabar: The Religious Life and History of a Nigerian Town. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1989.

Oosthuizen, Gehardus C. "The 'Newness' of the New Age in South Africa and Reactions to It." In Perspectives on the New Age, edited by James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.

Parrinder, Geoffrey. African Traditional Religion. London: Sheldon Press, 1974. Reprint, New York: Harper, 1977.

Wellard, James. Lost Worlds of Africa. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1967.

• Maps and Cartography - Africa: second largest continent, divided between Northern and Southern hemispheres, between Asia and South America, south of Europe, extending from Atlantic to Indian Ocean

For other uses, see Africa (disambiguation).

Africa

Africa
Area	30,221,532 km2 (11,668,599 sq mi)
Population	1,032,532,974[1] (2011, 2nd)
Pop. density	30.51/km2 (about 80/sq mi)
Demonym	African
Countries	56 (list of countries)
Dependencies	List Mayotte Réunion Canary Islands Ceuta Madeira Islands Melilla Saint Helena
Languages	Languages of Africa
Time Zones	UTC-1 to UTC+4
Largest cities	List of metropolitan areas in Africa List of cities in Africa

Map of Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area.^[2] With 1.0 billion people (as of 2009, see table), it accounts for about 14.72% of the world's human population.

The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagoes. It has 54 fully recognized sovereign states ("countries"), 9 territories and three de facto states with limited recognition.^[3]

Africa, particularly central Eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae clade (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago – including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens (modern human) found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago.^[4]

Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones.^[5] The African expected economic growth rate is at about 5.0% for 2010 and 5.5% in 2011.^[6]

Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2.1 Prehistory 2.2 Early civilizations 2.3 9th–18th centuries 2.4 Height of slave trade 2.5 Colonialism and the "Scramble for Africa" 2.6 Berlin Conference 2.7 Independence struggles 2.8 Post-colonial Africa 3 Geography 3.1 Climate 3.2 Fauna 3.3 Ecology 4 Biodiversity 5 Politics 5.1 The African Union 6 Economy 7 Demographics 8 Languages 9 Culture 9.1 Visual art and architecture 9.2 Music and dance 9.3 Sports 10 Religion 11 Territories and regions 12 See also 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External links

Etymology

Afri was a Latin name used to refer to the Carthaginians who dwelt in North Africa in modern-day Tunisia. Their name is usually connected with Phoenician afar, "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis^[7] has asserted that it stems from the Berber word ifri or ifran meaning "cave" and "caves", in reference to cave dwellers.^[8] Africa or Ifri or Afer^[8] is the name of Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania (Berber Tribe of Yafran).^[9]

Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of Africa Province, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya.^[10] The Latin suffix "-ica" can sometimes be used to denote a land (e.g., in Celtica from Celtes, as used by Julius Caesar). The later Muslim kingdom of Ifriqiya, modern-day Tunisia, also preserved a form of the name.

Other etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":

• the 1st century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Ant. 1.15) asserted that it was named for Epher, grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya.
• Latin word aprica ("sunny") mentioned by Isidore of Seville in Etymologiae XIV.5.2.
• the Greek word aphrike (Αφρική), meaning "without cold." This was proposed by historian Leo Africanus (1488–1554), who suggested the Greek word phrike (φρίκη, meaning "cold and horror"), combined with the privative prefix "a-", thus indicating a land free of cold and horror.^[11]
• Another theory is that the word aphrikè comes from aphròs, foam and Aphrikè, land of foam, meaning the land of the big waves (like Attica, from the word aktè, Aktikè meaning land of the coasts).^{[citation needed]}
• Massey, in 1881, derived an etymology from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, "to turn toward the opening of the Ka." The Ka is the energetic double of every person and "opening of the Ka" refers to a womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for the Egyptians, "the birthplace."^[12]
• yet another hypothesis was proposed by Michèle Fruyt in Revue de Philologie 50, 1976: 221–238, linking the Latin word with africus 'south wind', which would be of Umbrian origin and mean originally 'rainy wind'.

The Irish female name Aifric is sometimes anglicised as Africa, but the given name is unrelated to the geonym.

History

Main article: History of Africa

Further information: History of North Africa, History of West Africa, History of Central Africa, History of East Africa, and History of Southern Africa

Prehistory

Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered on November 24, 1974, in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression

Africa is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the human species originating from the continent.^[13][14] During the middle of the 20th century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years ago. Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have evolved into modern man, such as Australopithecus afarensis (radiometrically dated to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BC),^[15] Paranthropus boisei (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BC)^[16] and Homo ergaster (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years BC) have been discovered.^[2]

Throughout humanity's prehistory, Africa (like all other continents) had no nation states, and was instead inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers such as the Khoi and San.^[17][18][19]

At the end of the Ice Ages, estimated to have been around 10,500 BC, the Sahara had again become a green fertile valley, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in Sub-Saharan Africa^{[citation needed]}. However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5000 BC the Sahara region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since this time dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa, and increasingly during the last 200 years, in Ethiopia.

The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gathering cultures. It is speculated that by 6000 BC cattle were already domesticated in North Africa.^[20] In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals including the donkey, and a small screw-horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia. In the year 4000 BC the climate of the Sahara started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace.^[21] This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification. This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and helped to cause migrations of farming communities to the more tropical climate of West Africa.^[21]

By the first millennium BC ironworking had been introduced in Northern Africa and quickly spread across the Sahara into the northern parts of sub-Saharan Africa^[22] and by 500 BC metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa. Ironworking was fully established by roughly 500 BC in many areas of East and West Africa, although other regions didn't begin ironworking until the early centuries AD. Copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that trans-saharan trade networks had been established by this date.^[21]

Early civilizations

Main article: Ancient African history

Colossal statues of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel, Egypt, date from around 1400 BC.

The origins and spread of the Bantu languages c. 1000 BC to c. 500 AD.

At about 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the Pharaonic civilisation of Ancient Egypt.^[23] One of the world's earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the Egyptian state continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC.^[24][25] Egyptian influence reached deep into modern-day Libya, north to Crete^[26] and Canaan^{[citation needed]}, and south to the kingdoms of Aksum^{[citation needed]} and Nubia^{[citation needed]}.

An independent centre of civilisation with trading links to Phoenicia was established by Phoenicians from Tyre on the north-west African coast at Carthage.^[27][28][29]

European exploration of Africa began with Ancient Greeks and Romans. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great was welcomed as a liberator in Persian-occupied Egypt. He founded Alexandria in Egypt, which would become the prosperous capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty after his death.^[30] Following the conquest of North Africa's Mediterranean coastline by the Roman Empire, the area was integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system. Roman settlement occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast. Christianity spread across these areas at an early date, from Judaea via Egypt and beyond the borders of the Roman world into Nubia;^{[citation needed]} by AD 340 at the latest, it had become the state religion of the Aksumite Empire thanks to Syro-Greek missionaries who arrived by way of the Red Sea.^{[citation needed]}

In the early 7th century, the newly formed Arabian Islamic Caliphate expanded into Egypt, and then into North Africa. In a short while the local Berber elite had been integrated into Muslim Arab tribes. When the Ummayad capital Damascus fell in the 8th century, the Islamic center of the Mediterranean shifted from Syria to Qayrawan in North Africa. Islamic North Africa had become diverse, and a hub for mystics, scholars, jurists and philosophers. During the above mentioned period, Islam spread to sub-Saharan Africa, mainly through trade routes and migration.^[31]

9th–18th centuries

African horseman of Baguirmi in full padded armour suit

9th century bronzes from the Igbo town of Igbo Ukwu, now at the British Museum^[32]

Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities^[33] characterised by many different sorts of political organisation and rule. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the Bantu-speaking people of central and southern Africa, heavily structured clan groups in the Horn of Africa, the large Sahelian kingdoms, and autonomous city-states and kingdoms such as those of the Akan, Yoruba and Igbo people (also misspelled as Ibo) in West Africa, and the Swahili coastal trading towns of East Africa.

By the 9th century a string of dynastic states, including the earliest Hausa states, stretched across the sub-saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were Ghana, Gao, and the Kanem-Bornu Empire. Ghana declined in the 11th century but was succeeded by the Mali Empire which consolidated much of western Sudan in the 13th century. Kanem accepted Islam in the 11th century.

In the forested regions of the West African coast, independent kingdoms grew up with little influence from the Muslim north. The Kingdom of Nri of the Igbo was established around the 9th century and was one of the first. It is also one of the oldest Kingdom in modern day Nigeria and was ruled by the Eze Nri. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes, found at the town of Igbo Ukwu. The bronzes have been dated from as far back as the 9th century.^[34]

Ashanti yam ceremony, 19th century by Thomas E. Bowdich

The Ife, historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms, established government under a priestly oba (ruler), (oba means 'king' or 'ruler' in the Yoruba language), called the Ooni of Ife. Ife was noted as a major religious and cultural centre in Africa, and for its unique naturalistic tradition of bronze sculpture. The Ife model of government was adapted at Oyo, where its obas or kings, called the Alaafins of Oyo once controlled a large number of other Yoruba and non Yoruba city states and Kingdoms, the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey was one of the non Yoruba domains under Oyo control.

The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over a wide area of northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the 11th century.^[35] The Banu Hilal and Banu Ma'qil were a collection of Arab Bedouin tribes from the Arabian peninsula who migrated westwards via Egypt between the 11th and 13th centuries. Their migration resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were Arabized,^[36] and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of Islam.^[37]

Ruins of Great Zimbabwe (11th–15th c.)

Following the breakup of Mali a local leader named Sonni Ali (1464–1492) founded the Songhai Empire in the region of middle Niger and the western Sudan and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor Askia Mohammad I (1493–1528) made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and brought Muslim scholars, including al-Maghili (d.1504), the founder of an important tradition of Sudanic African Muslim scholarship, to Gao.^[38] By the 11th century some Hausa states – such as Kano, jigawa, Katsina, and Gobir – had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing caravans, and the manufacture of goods. Until the 15th century these small states were on the periphery of the major Sudanic empires of the era, paying tribute to Songhai to the west and Kanem-Borno to the east.

Height of slave trade

See also: Arab slave trade and Atlantic slave trade

A point of no return in Ouidah, Benin, a former gateway for slaves to slave ships.

Slavery had long been practiced in Africa.^[39][40] Between the 7th and 20th centuries, Arab slave trade (also known as slavery in the East) took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries (500 years), the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World.^[41][42][43]

In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.^[44]

Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers.^[45] The largest powers of West Africa (the Asante Confederacy, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil, cocoa, timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars.^[46]

Colonialism and the "Scramble for Africa"

Main article: Colonization of Africa

Further information: Scramble for Africa

Map of Africa in 1909, showing boundary of colonial control and location of resources

Areas of Africa under the control, influence, or claimed control, of the colonial powers in 1913, along with modern borders.

  Belgium

  Germany

  Spain

  France

  United Kingdom

  Italy

  Portugal

  independent

In the late 19th century, the European imperial powers engaged in a major territorial scramble and occupied most of the continent, creating many colonial territories, and leaving only two fully independent states: Ethiopia (known to Europeans as "Abyssinia"), and Liberia. Egypt and Sudan were never formally incorporated into any European colonial empire; however, after the British occupation of 1882, Egypt was effectively under British administration until 1922.

Berlin Conference

The Berlin Conference held in 1884–85 was an important event in the political future of African ethnic groups. It was convened by King Leopold II of Belgium, and attended by the European powers that laid claim to African territories. It sought to bring an end to the Scramble for Africa by European powers by agreeing on political division and spheres of influence. They set up the political divisions of the continent, by spheres of interest, that exist in Africa today.

Independence struggles

Imperial rule by Europeans would continue until after the conclusion of World War II, when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence. Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951, Libya, a former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia and Morocco won their independence from France.^[47] Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957),^[48] becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be freed. Most of the rest of the continent became independent over the next decade.

Portugal's overseas presence in Sub-Saharan Africa (most notably in Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe) lasted from the 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a military coup in Lisbon. Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, under the white minority government of Ian Smith, but was not internationally recognised as an independent state (as Zimbabwe) until 1980, when black nationalists gained power after a bitter guerrilla war. Although South Africa was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state remained under the control of the country's white minority through a system of racial segregation known as apartheid until 1994.

Post-colonial Africa

Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, most of which still have the borders drawn during the era of European colonialism. Since colonialism, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule. However, few of them have been able to sustain democratic governments on a permanent basis, and many have instead cycled through a series of coups, producing military dictatorships.

Great instability was mainly the result of marginalization of ethnic groups, and graft under these leaders. For political gain, many leaders fanned ethnic conflicts, some of which had been exacerbated, or even created, by colonial rule. In many countries, the military was perceived as being the only group that could effectively maintain order, and it ruled many nations in Africa during the 1970s and early 1980s. During the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, Africa had more than 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations. Border and territorial disputes were also common, with the European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.

Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as the policies of the International Monetary Fund, also played a role in instability. When a country became independent for the first time, it was often expected to align with one of the two superpowers. Many countries in Northern Africa received Soviet military aid, while many in Central and Southern Africa were supported by the United States, France or both. The 1970s saw an escalation, as newly independent Angola and Mozambique aligned themselves with the Soviet Union, and the West and South Africa sought to contain Soviet influence by funding insurgency movements. There was a major famine in Ethiopia, when hundreds of thousands of people starved. Some claimed that Marxist/Soviet policies made the situation worse.^[49][50][51] The most devastating military conflict in modern independent Africa has been the Second Congo War. By 2008, this conflict and its aftermath had killed 5.4 million people. Since 2003 there has been an ongoing conflict in Darfur which has become a humanitarian disaster. AIDS has also been a prevalent issue in post-colonial Africa.

In the 21st century, however, the number of armed conflicts in Africa has steadily declined. For instance, the civil war in Angola came to an end in 2002 after nearly 30 years. This has coincided with many countries abandoning communist style command economies and opening up for market reforms. The improved stability and economic reforms have led to a great increase in foreign investment into many African nations, mainly from China, which has spurred quick economic growth in many countries, seemingly ending decades of stagnation and decline. Several African economies are among the world's fasted growing as of 2011.

Geography

A composite satellite image of Africa (centre) with North America (left) and Eurasia (right), to scale

Main article: Geography of Africa

Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the largest landmass of the Earth. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), 163 km (101 mi) wide.^[52] (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.)^[53]

Biomes of Africa.

From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51'15" S), is a distance of approximately 8,000 km (5,000 mi);^[54] from Cape Verde, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27'52" E, the most easterly projection, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km (4,600 mi).^[55] The coastline is 26,000 km (16,000 mi) long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only 10,400,000 km² (4,000,000 sq mi) – about a third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of 32,000 km (20,000 mi).^[55]

Africa's largest country is Algeria, and its smallest country is the Seychelles, an archipelago off the east coast.^[56] The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.

According to the ancient Romans, Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between the two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85–165 AD), indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa expanded with their knowledge.

Geologically, Africa includes the Arabian Peninsula; the Zagros Mountains of Iran and the Anatolian Plateau of Turkey mark where the African Plate collided with Eurasia. The Afrotropic ecozone and the Saharo-Arabian desert to its north unite the region biogeographically, and the Afro-Asiatic language family unites the north linguistically.

Climate

A map of Africa showing the ecological break around the Sahara desert

Main article: Climate of Africa

The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both savanna plains and very dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence where vegetation patterns such as sahel, and steppe dominate. Africa is the hottest continent on earth; drylands and deserts comprise 60% of the entire land surface.^[57] The record for the highest temperature recorded was set in Libya in 1922 (58 °C (136 °F)).^[58]

Fauna

Savanna at Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

Main article: Fauna of Africa

Africa boasts perhaps the world's largest combination of density and "range of freedom" of wild animal populations and diversity, with wild populations of large carnivores (such as lions, hyenas, and cheetahs) and herbivores (such as buffalo, elephants, camels, and giraffes) ranging freely on primarily open non-private plains. It is also home to a variety of "jungle" animals including snakes and primates and aquatic life such as crocodiles and amphibians. In addition, Africa has the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna.

Ecology

Deforestation is affecting Africa at twice the world rate, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).^[59] According to the University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center, 31% of Africa's pasture lands and 19% of its forests and woodlands are classified as degraded, and Africa is losing over four million hectares of forest every year, which is twice the average deforestation rate compared to the rest of the world.^[57] Some sources claim that deforestation has already destroyed roughly 90% of the original, virgin forests in West Africa.^[60] Since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago, Madagascar has lost more than 90% of its original forest.^[61] About 65% of Africa's agricultural land suffers from soil degradation.^[62]

Biodiversity

Africa has over 3,000 protected areas, with 198 marine protected areas, 50 biosphere reserves and 80 wetlands reserves. Significant habitat destruction, increases in human population and poaching are reducing Africa's biological diversity. Human encroachment, civil unrest and the introduction of non-native species threatens biodiversity in Africa. This has been exacerbated by administrative problems, inadequate personnel and funding problems.^[57]

Politics

See also: List of political parties in Africa by country

There are clear signs of increased networking among African organisations and states. For example, in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, neighbouring African countries became involved (see also Second Congo War). Since the conflict began in 1998, the estimated death toll has reached 5 million.

The African Union

Map of the African Union with suspended states highlighted in light green.

Main article: African Union

The African Union (AU) is a 54 member federation consisting of all of Africa's states except Morocco. The union was formed, with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as its headquarters, on 26 June 2001. The union was officially established on 9 July 2002^[63] as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). In July 2004, the African Union's Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was relocated to Midrand, in South Africa, but the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights remained in Addis Ababa. There is a policy in effect to decentralize the African Federation's institutions so that they are shared by all the states.

The African Union, not to be confused with the AU Commission, is formed by the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which aims to transform the African Economic Community, a federated commonwealth, into a state under established international conventions. The African Union has a parliamentary government, known as the African Union Government, consisting of legislative, judicial and executive organs. It is led by the African Union President and Head of State, who is also the President of the Pan African Parliament. A person becomes AU President by being elected to the PAP, and subsequently gaining majority support in the PAP. The powers and authority of the President of the African Parliament derive from the Constitutive Act and the Protocol of the Pan African Parliament, as well as the inheritance of presidential authority stipulated by African treaties and by international treaties, including those subordinating the Secretary General of the OAU Secretariat (AU Commission) to the PAP. The government of the AU consists of all-union (federal), regional, state, and municipal authorities, as well as hundreds of institutions, that together manage the day-to-day affairs of the institution.

Political associations such as the African Union offer hope for greater co-operation and peace between the continent's many countries. Extensive human rights abuses still occur in several parts of Africa, often under the oversight of the state. Most of such violations occur for political reasons, often as a side effect of civil war. Countries where major human rights violations have been reported in recent times include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Côte d'Ivoire.

A clickable Euler diagram showing the relationships between various multinational African organisations.v • d • e

Political map of Africa. (Hover mouse to see name, click area to go to article.)

Economy

Map of the African Economic Community.

Main article: Economy of Africa

See also: Economy of the African Union

Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world's poorest and most underdeveloped continent, the result of a variety of causes that may include the spread of deadly diseases and viruses (notably HIV/AIDS and malaria), corrupt governments that have often committed serious human rights violations, failed central planning, high levels of illiteracy, lack of access to foreign capital, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from guerrilla warfare to genocide).^[64] According to the United Nations' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 25 ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African.^[65]

Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health, affect a large proportion of the people who reside in the African continent. In August 2008, the World Bank^[66] announced revised global poverty estimates based on a new international poverty line of $1.25 per day (versus the previous measure of $1.00). 80.5% of the Sub-Saharan Africa population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) a day in 2005, compared with 85.7% for India.^[67]

The Casablanca Twin Center shopping complex in Casablanca, Morocco.

The Times Tower, the tallest building in East and Central Africa, which is used by the K.R.A. for tax remissions.

The new figures confirm that sub-Saharan Africa has been the least successful region of the world in reducing poverty ($1.25 per day); some 50% of the population living in poverty in 1981 (200 million people), a figure that rose to 58% in 1996 before dropping to 50% in 2005 (380 million people). The average poor person in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to live on only 70 cents per day, and was poorer in 2003 than he or she was in 1973 ^[68] indicating increasing poverty in some areas. Some of it is attributed to unsuccessful economic liberalization programs spearheaded by foreign companies and governments, but other studies and reports have cited bad domestic government policies more than external factors.^[69][70][71]

From 1995 to 2005, Africa's rate of economic growth increased, averaging 5% in 2005. Some countries experienced still higher growth rates, notably Angola, Sudan and Equatorial Guinea, all three of which had recently begun extracting their petroleum reserves or had expanded their oil extraction capacity. The continent is believed to hold 90% of the world’s cobalt, 90% of its platinum, 50% of its gold, 98% of its chromium, 70% of its tantalite,^[72] 64% of its manganese and one-third of its uranium.^[73] The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has 70% of the world’s coltan, and most mobile phones in the world are made with elements refined from this mineral. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world’s diamond reserves.^[74] Guinea is the world’s largest exporter of bauxite.^[75] As the growth in Africa has been driven mainly by services and not manufacturing or agriculture, it has been growth without jobs and without reduction in poverty levels. In fact, the food security crisis of 2008 which took place on the heels of the global financial crisis has pushed back 100 million people into food insecurity.^[76]

In recent years, the People's Republic of China has built increasingly stronger ties with African nations. In 2007, Chinese companies invested a total of US$1 billion in Africa.^[77]

A Harvard University study showed that Africa could easily feed itself, if only it had decent governance.^[78]

Demographics

Main articles: African people and Demographics of Africa

Woman from Benin

Africa's population has rapidly increased over the last 40 years, and consequently, it is relatively young. In some African states, half or more of the population is under 25 years of age.^[79] The total number of people in Africa grew from 221 million in 1950 to 1 billion in 2009.^[80][81]

San Bushman man from Botswana

Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the Niger–Congo family) are the majority in southern, central and southeast Africa. The Bantu-speaking farmers from West Africa's inland savanna progressively expanded over most of Sub-Saharan Africa.^[82] But there are also several Nilotic groups in South Sudan and East Africa, the mixed Swahili people on the Swahili Coast, and a few remaining indigenous Khoisan ('San' or 'Bushmen') and Pygmy peoples in southern and central Africa, respectively. Bantu-speaking Africans also predominate in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, and are found in parts of southern Cameroon. In the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also "San", closely related to, but distinct from "Hottentots") have long been present. The San are physically distinct from other Africans and are the indigenous people of southern Africa. Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of central Africa.^[83]

The peoples of West Africa primarily speak Niger–Congo languages, belonging mostly, though not exclusively, to its non-Bantu branches, though some Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic speaking groups are also found. The Niger–Congo-speaking Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, Akan and Wolof ethnic groups are the largest and most influential. In the central Sahara, Mandinka or Mande groups are most significant, and in east Central Africa Nilo-Saharan-speaking groups such as the Zaghawa, Baya, Kanuri and Sao predominate. Chadic-speaking groups, including the Hausa, are found in more northerly parts of the region nearest to the Sahara.

Berber boys from the Atlas Mountains

The peoples of North Africa comprise three main groups: Berbers in the northwest, Egyptians and Libyans in northeast, and Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples in the east. The Arabs who arrived in the 7th century introduced the Arabic language and Islam to North Africa. The Semitic Phoenicians (who founded Carthage) and Hyksos, the Indo-Iranian Alans, the Indo- European Greeks, Romans and Vandals settled in North Africa as well. Berbers still make up the majority in Morocco, while they are a significant minority within Algeria. They are also present in Tunisia and Libya.^[84] The Berber-speaking Tuareg and other often-nomadic peoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. In Mauritania, there are small communities of Berber-speaking peoples in the north and Niger–Congo-speaking peoples in the south, though in both regions Arabic and Arab culture predominates. In Sudan, although Arabic and Arab culture predominates, it is mostly inhabited by originally Nilo-Saharan speaking groups such as the Nubians, Nuba, Fur and Zaghawa who over the centuries have variously intermixed with migrants from the Arabian peninsula. Small communities of Afro-Asiatic speaking Beja nomads can also be found in Egypt and Sudan.

Beja bedouins from Northeast Africa

In the Horn of Africa, some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans, collectively known as Habesha) speak languages from the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, while the Oromo and Somali speak languages from the Cushitic branch of Afro-Asiatic.

Afrikaner Trekboers in the Karoo of South Africa

Prior to the decolonization movements of the post-World War II era, Europeans were represented in every part of Africa.^[85] Decolonisation during the 1960s and 1970s often resulted in the mass emigration of European-descended settlers out of Africa – especially from Algeria and Morocco (1.6 million pieds-noirs in North Africa),^[86] Kenya, Congo,^[87] Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola.^[88] By the end of 1977, more than one million Portuguese were thought to have returned from Africa.^[89] Nevertheless, White Africans remain an important minority in many African states, particularly South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Réunion.^[90] The African country with the largest White African population is South Africa.^[91] The Afrikaners, the Anglo-Africans (of British origin) and the Coloureds are the largest European-descended groups in Africa today.

European colonization also brought sizable groups of Asians, particularly people from the Indian subcontinent, to British colonies. Large Indian communities are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in Kenya, Tanzania, and some other southern and East African countries. The large Indian community in Uganda was expelled by the dictator Idi Amin in 1972, though many have since returned. The islands in the Indian Ocean are also populated primarily by people of Asian origin, often mixed with Africans and Europeans. The Malagasy people of Madagascar are an Austronesian people, but those along the coast are generally mixed with Bantu, Arab, Indian and European origins. Malay and Indian ancestries are also important components in the group of people known in South Africa as Cape Coloureds (people with origins in two or more races and continents). During the 20th century, small but economically important communities of Lebanese and Chinese^[77] have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.^[92]

Languages

Main article: Languages of Africa

Map showing the distribution of the various language families of Africa.

By most estimates, well over a thousand languages (UNESCO has estimated around two thousand) are spoken in Africa.^[93] Most are of African origin, though some are of European or Asian origin. Africa is the most multilingual continent in the world, and it is not rare for individuals to fluently speak not only multiple African languages, but one or more European ones as well. There are four major language families indigenous to Africa.

• The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout the Horn of Africa, North Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
• The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by tribes in Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, and northern Tanzania.
• The Niger–Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa and is probably the largest language family in the world in terms of different languages.
• The Khoisan languages number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 120,000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.

Following the end of colonialism, nearly all African countries adopted official languages that originated outside the continent, although several countries also granted legal recognition to indigenous languages (such as Swahili, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa). In numerous countries, English and French (see African French) are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media. Arabic, Portuguese, Afrikaans and Spanish are examples of languages that trace their origin to outside of Africa, and that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and private spheres. Italian is spoken by some in former Italian colonies in Africa. German is spoken in Namibia, as it was a former German protectorate.

Culture

The rock-hewn Church of Saint George in Lalibela, Ethiopia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Main article: Culture of Africa

Some^[which?] aspects of traditional African cultures have become less practiced in recent years as a result of years of neglect and suppression by colonial and post-colonial regimes. There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and revalourise African traditional cultures, under such movements as the African Renaissance, led by Thabo Mbeki, Afrocentrism, led by a group of scholars, including Molefi Asante, as well as the increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through decriminalization of Vodou and other forms of spirituality. In recent years, traditional African culture has become synonymous with rural poverty and subsistence farming.

Visual art and architecture

African art and architecture reflect the diversity of African cultures. The oldest existing examples of art from Africa are 82,000-year-old beads made from Nassarius shells that were found in the Aterian levels at Grotte des Pigeons, Taforalt, Morocco.^{[citation needed]} The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was the world's tallest structure for 4,000 years, until the completion of Lincoln Cathedral around the year 1300. The stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe are also noteworthy for their architecture, and the complexity of monolithic churches at Lalibela, Ethiopia, of which the Church of Saint George is representative.^{[citation needed]}

A musician from South Africa

Music and dance

Main article: Music of Africa

The Namibia rugby team

Egypt has long been a cultural focus of the Arab world, while remembrance of the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular West Africa, was transmitted through the Atlantic slave trade to modern samba, blues, jazz, reggae, hip hop, and rock. The 1950s through the 1970s saw a conglomeration of these various styles with the popularization of Afrobeat and Highlife music. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of the musical genre of soukous, dominated by the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Indigenous musical and dance traditions of Africa are maintained by oral traditions, and they are distinct from the music and dance styles of North Africa and Southern Africa. Arab influences are visible in North African music and dance and, in Southern Africa, Western influences are apparent due to colonisation.

Sports

Fifty-three African countries have football (soccer) teams in the Confederation of African Football, while Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, and Ghana have advanced to the knockout stage of recent FIFA World Cups. South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup tournament, becoming the first African country to do so. According to FIFA ranking, Egypt currently has the best soccer team in Africa. Their team has won the African Cup 7 times, and a record-making 3 times in a row.

Cricket is popular in some African nations. South Africa and Zimbabwe have Test status, while Kenya is the leading non-test team in One-Day International cricket and has attained permanent One-Day International status. The three countries jointly hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Namibia is the other African country to have played in a World Cup. Morocco in northern Africa has also hosted the 2002 Morocco Cup, but the national team has never qualified for a major tournament. Rugby is a popular sport in South Africa and Namibia.

Religion

A map showing religious distribution in Africa.

Voodoo altar in Abomey, Benin

Main article: Religion in Africa

Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs^[94] and statistics on religious affiliation are difficult to come by since they are too sensitive a topic for governments with mixed populations.^[95] According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Islam is the largest religion in Africa, followed by Christianity. However, according to Encyclopædia Britannica, 45% of the population are Christians, 40% are Muslims and less than 15% continue to follow traditional African religions. A small number of Africans are Hindu, Baha'i, or have beliefs from the Judaic tradition. Examples of African Jews are the Beta Israel, Lemba peoples and the Abayudaya of Eastern Uganda. There is also a small minority of Africans who are non-religious.

Territories and regions

Main articles: List of regions of Africa and List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa

The countries in this table are categorised according to the scheme for geographic subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly indicated.

Regions of Africa:   Northern Africa   Western Africa   Central Africa   Eastern Africa   Southern Africa

Physical map of Africa

Political map of Africa

Name of region[96] and territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (2009 est) except where noted	Density (per km²)	Capital
Eastern Africa
Burundi	27,830	8,988,091[97]	322.9	Bujumbura
Comoros	2,170	752,438[97]	346.7	Moroni
Djibouti	23,000	516,055[97]	22.4	Djibouti
Eritrea	121,320	5,647,168[97]	46.5	Asmara
Ethiopia	1,127,127	85,237,338[97]	75.6	Addis Ababa
Kenya	582,650	39,002,772[97]	66.0	Nairobi
Madagascar	587,040	20,653,556[97]	35.1	Antananarivo
Malawi	118,480	14,268,711[97]	120.4	Lilongwe
Mauritius	2,040	1,284,264[97]	629.5	Port Louis
Mayotte (France)	374	223,765[97]	489.7	Mamoudzou
Mozambique	801,590	21,669,278[97]	27.0	Maputo
Réunion (France)	2,512	743,981(2002)	296.2	Saint-Denis
Rwanda	26,338	10,473,282[97]	397.6	Kigali
Seychelles	455	87,476[97]	192.2	Victoria
Somalia	637,657	9,832,017[97]	15.4	Mogadishu
Tanzania	945,087	41,048,532[97]	43.3	Dodoma
Uganda	236,040	32,369,558[97]	137.1	Kampala
Zambia	752,614	11,862,740[97]	15.7	Lusaka
Central Africa
Angola	1,246,700	12,799,293[97]	10.3	Luanda
Cameroon	475,440	18,879,301[97]	39.7	Yaoundé
Central African Republic	622,984	4,511,488[97]	7.2	Bangui
Chad	1,284,000	10,329,208[97]	8.0	N'Djamena
Republic of the Congo	342,000	4,012,809[97]	11.7	Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of the Congo	2,345,410	68,692,542[97]	29.2	Kinshasa
Equatorial Guinea	28,051	633,441[97]	22.6	Malabo
Gabon	267,667	1,514,993[97]	5.6	Libreville
São Tomé and Príncipe	1,001	212,679[97]	212.4	São Tomé
Northern Africa
Algeria	2,381,740	34,178,188[97]	14.3	Algiers
Canary Islands (Spain)[98]	7,492	2,118,519(2010)	226.2	Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Ceuta (Spain)[99]	20	71,505(2001)	3,575.2	—
Egypt[100]	1,001,450	83,082,869[97] total, Asia 1.4m	82.9	Cairo
Libya	1,759,540	6,310,434[97]	3.6	Tripoli
Madeira (Portugal)[101]	797	245,000(2001)	307.4	Funchal
Melilla (Spain)[102]	12	66,411(2001)	5,534.2	—
Morocco	446,550	34,859,364[97]	78.0	Rabat
South Sudan	619,745[97]	8,260,490 [97]	13.3	Juba
Sudan	1,861,484	36,787,012[97]	19.7	Khartoum
Tunisia	163,610	10,486,339[97]	64.1	Tunis
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic[103]	266,000	405,210[97]	1.5	El Aaiún
Southern Africa
Botswana	600,370	1,990,876[97]	3.3	Gaborone
Lesotho	30,355	2,130,819[97]	70.2	Maseru
Zimbabwe	390,580	11,392,629[97]	29.1	Harare
Namibia	825,418	2,108,665[97]	2.6	Windhoek
South Africa	1,219,912	49,052,489[97]	40.2	Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria[104]
Swaziland	17,363	1,123,913[97]	64.7	Mbabane
Western Africa
Benin	112,620	8,791,832[97]	78.0	Porto-Novo
Burkina Faso	274,200	15,746,232[97]	57.4	Ouagadougou
Cape Verde	4,033	429,474[97]	107.3	Praia
Côte d'Ivoire	322,460	20,617,068[97]	63.9	Abidjan,[105] Yamoussoukro
Gambia	11,300	1,782,893[97]	157.7	Banjul
Ghana	239,460	23,832,495[97]	99.5	Accra
Guinea	245,857	10,057,975[97]	40.9	Conakry
Guinea-Bissau	36,120	1,533,964[97]	42.5	Bissau
Liberia	111,370	3,441,790[97]	30.9	Monrovia
Mali	1,240,000	12,666,987[97]	10.2	Bamako
Mauritania	1,030,700	3,129,486[97]	3.0	Nouakchott
Niger	1,267,000	15,306,252[97]	12.1	Niamey
Nigeria	923,768	158,259,000[97]	161.5	Abuja
Saint Helena (UK)	410	7,637[97]	14.4	Jamestown
Senegal	196,190	13,711,597[97]	69.9	Dakar
Sierra Leone	71,740	6,440,053[97]	89.9	Freetown
Togo	56,785	6,019,877[97]	106.0	Lomé
Africa Total	30,368,609	1,001,320,281	33.0

See also

Africa portal

	Book: Africa
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• Outline of Africa
• Index of Africa-related articles
• Afro-Eurasia
• Highest mountain peaks of Africa
• List of African millionaires
• List of cities in Africa
• Urbanization in Africa

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47. ^ Lucien Bély, ''History of France''. Editions Jean-paul Gisserot. 2001. page 118. Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=Ltzav890zpIC&pg=PA118&dq=tunisia+morocco+independance+1956&hl=fr&ei=M-AVTafIN4is8QPWosSDBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2011-11-07. 
48. ^ Ernest Aryeetey, Jane Harrigan and Machiko Nissanke, ''Economic reforms in Ghana : the miracle and the mirage''. Africa World Press. 2000. page 5. Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=87V55ZHppSYC&pg=PA5&dq=ghana+independance+1957&hl=fr&ei=KeMVTfTRMImo8QPe5c2EBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBTgU#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2011-11-07. 
49. ^ "BBC: 1984 famine in Ethiopia". BBC News. 2000-04-06. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/703958.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-01. 
50. ^ Robert G. Patman, The Soviet Union in the Horn of Africa 1990, ISBN 0-521-36022-6, pp. 295–296
51. ^ Steven Varnis, Reluctant aid or aiding the reluctant?: U.S. food aid policy and the Ethiopian Famine Relief 1990, ISBN 0-88738-348-3, p.38
52. ^ Drysdale, Alasdair and Gerald H. Blake. (1985) The Middle East and North Africa, Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0-19-503538-0.
53. ^ "Atlas - Xpeditions @ nationalgeographic.com". National Geographic Society. 2003. Archived from the original on 3 March 2009. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=africa&Rootmap=&Mode=d. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
54. ^ Lewin, Evans. (1924) Africa, Clarendon press.
55. ^ ^{a b} (1998) Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (Index), Merriam-Webster. pp. 10–11. ISBN 0-87779-546-0.
56. ^ Hoare, Ben. (2002) The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia, Kingfisher Publications. p. 11. ISBN 0-7534-5569-2.
57. ^ ^{a b c} "Africa: Environmental Atlas, 06/17/08." African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania. Accessed June 2011.
58. ^ Hottest temperature record in the world, El Azizia, Libya
59. ^ Deforestation reaches worrying level – UN. AfricaNews. June 11, 2008.
60. ^ Forests and deforestation in Africa – the wasting of an immense resource. afrol News.
61. ^ Terrestrial Ecoregions – Madagascar subhumid forests (AT0118), National Geographic.
62. ^ Nature laid waste: The destruction of Africa. The Independent. June 11, 2008.
63. ^ Thabo Mbeki (9 July 2002). "Launch of the African Union, 9 July 2002: Address by the chairperson of the AU, President Thabo Mbeki". ABSA Stadium, Durban, South Africa: africa-union.org. http://www.africa-union.org/official_documents/Speeches_&_Statements/HE_Thabo_Mbiki/Launch%20of%20the%20African%20Union,%209%20July%202002.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-08. 
64. ^ Richard Sandbrook, The Politics of Africa's Economic Stagnation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985 passim
65. ^ [2], United Nations
66. ^ "World Bank Updates Poverty Estimates for the Developing World". Econ.worldbank.org. Archived from the original on 19 May 2010. http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:21882162~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469382,00.html. Retrieved 2010-05-18. ^{[dead link]}
67. ^ "The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty". World Bank. http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000158349_20080826113239. 
68. ^ Economic report on Africa 2004: unlocking Africa’s potential in the global economy, (Substantive session 28 June-23 July 2004) United Nations
69. ^ "Neo-Liberalism and the Economic and Political Future of Africa". Globalpolitician.com. 2005-12-19. http://www.globalpolitician.com/21498-africa-malawi-poverty. Retrieved 2010-05-18. 
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71. ^ "The Number of the Poor Increasing Worldwide while Sub-Saharan Africa is the Worst of All". Turkishweekly.net. 2008-08-29. http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=58925. Retrieved 2011-11-07. 
72. ^ "Africa: Developed Countries' Leverage On the Continent". AllAfrica.com. February 7, 2008.
73. ^ "Africa, China's new frontier". Times Online. February 10, 2008.
74. ^ "DR Congo poll crucial for Africa". BBC News. November 16, 2006.
75. ^ "China tightens grip on Africa with $4.4bn lifeline for Guinea junta". The Times. October 13, 2009.
76. ^ "The African Decade?". Ilmas Futehally. Strategic Foresight Group
77. ^ ^{a b} "China and Africa: Stronger Economic Ties Mean More Migration". By Malia Politzer, Migration Information Source. August 2008.
78. ^ "Africa Can Feed Itself in a Generation, Experts Say." Science Daily, 3 December 2010.
79. ^ "Africa Population Dynamics". http://www.overpopulation.org/Africa.html. 
80. ^ Population. Western Kentucky University.
81. ^ Africa's population now 1 billion. AfricaNews. August 25, 2009.
82. ^ Luc-Normand Tellier (2009). "Urban world history: an economic and geographical perspective". PUQ. p.204. ISBN 2-7605-1588-5
83. ^ Pygmies struggle to survive in war zone where abuse is routine. Times Online. December 16, 2004.
84. ^ Q&A: The Berbers. BBC News. March 12, 2004.
85. ^ "We Want Our Country" (3 of 10). Time. November 5, 1965
86. ^ Raimondo Cagiano De Azevedo (1994). "Migration and development co-operation.". Council of Europe. p.25. ISBN 92-871-2611-9
87. ^ Jungle Shipwreck. Time. July 25, 1960
88. ^ Flight from Angola, The Economist , August 16, 1975
89. ^ Portugal - Emigration, Eric Solsten, ed. Portugal: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1993.
90. ^ Holm, John A. (1989). Pidgins and Creoles: References survey. Cambridge University Press. p. 394. ISBN 0-521-35940-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=PcD7p9y3EIcC&pg=PA394&dq#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
91. ^ South Africa: People: Ethnic Groups. World Factbook of CIA
92. ^ "Lebanese Immigrants Boost West African Commerce", By Naomi Schwarz, VOANews.com, July 10, 2007
93. ^ "Africa". UNESCO. 2005. Archived from the original on June 2, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080602050234/http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=8048&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
94. ^ "African Religion on the Internet", Stanford University
95. ^ Onishi, Normitsu (November 1, 2001). "Rising Muslim Power in Africa Causing Unrest in Nigeria and Elsewhere". The New York Times Company. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00EEDC1030F932A35752C1A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1. Retrieved 2009-03-01. 
96. ^ Continental regions as per UN categorisations/map.
    
97. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf} USCensusBureau:Countries and Areas Ranked by Population: 2009^{[dead link]}
98. ^ The Spanish Canary Islands, of which Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are Santa Cruz de Tenerife are co-capitals, are often considered part of Northern Africa due to their relative proximity to Morocco and Western Sahara; population and area figures are for 2001.
    
99. ^ The Spanish exclave of Ceuta is surrounded on land by Morocco in Northern Africa; population and area figures are for 2001.
    
100. ^ Egypt is generally considered a transcontinental country in Northern Africa (UN region) and Western Asia; population and area figures are for African portion only, west of the Suez Canal.
     
101. ^ The Portuguese Madeira Islands are often considered part of Northern Africa due to their relative proximity to Morocco; population and area figures are for 2001.
     
102. ^ The Spanish exclave of Melilla is surrounded on land by Morocco in Northern Africa; population and area figures are for 2001.
     
103. ^ The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is recognized as a sovereign state by the African Union, however, Morocco claims the entirety of the country as Morocco's own Southern Provinces, and has occupied most of its territory since it declared its independence from Spain in 1976. Morocco's occupation and annexation of this territory has not been recognized internationally.
     
104. ^ Bloemfontein is the judicial capital of South Africa, while Cape Town is its legislative seat, and Pretoria is the country's administrative seat.
     
105. ^ Yamoussoukro is the official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while Abidjan is the de facto seat.

Further reading

• Asante, Molefi (2007). The History of Africa. USA: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-77139-0. 
• Clark, J. Desmond (1970). The Prehistory of Africa. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-02069-2. 
• Crowder, Michael (1978). The Story of Nigeria. London: Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-04947-9. 
• Davidson, Basil (1966). The African past; chronicles from antiquity to modern times. Harmondsworth: Penguin. OCLC 2016817. 
• Gordon, April A.; Donald L. Gordon (1996). Understanding contemporary Africa. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 978-1-55587-547-3. 
• Khapoya, Vincent B. (1998). The African experience: an introduction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-745852-3. 
• Naipaul, V. S.. The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief. Picador, 2010. ISBN 978-0-330-47205-0

External links

Find more about Africa on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Africa.

General information

• Africa at the Open Directory Project
• African & Middle Eastern Reading Room from the United States Library of Congress
• Africa South of the Sahara from Stanford University
• The Index on Africa from The Norwegian Council for Africa
• Africa from The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online
• Aluka Digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa
• Atlas of Our Changing Environment: Africa from United Nations Environment Programme
• Africa Interactive Map from the United States Army Africa

Wikimedia Atlas of Africa

History

• African Kingdoms
• The Story of Africa from BBC World Service
• Africa Policy Information Center (APIC)
• Charles Finch: Nile Genesis

News media

• allAfrica.com current news, events and statistics
• Focus on Africa magazine from BBC World Service

Travel

• Africa travel guide from Wikitravel

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - Afrika

Français (French)
n. - Afrique

Deutsch (German)
n. - Afrika

Português (Portuguese)
n. - Africa

Español (Spanish)
n. - Africa

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
非洲

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 非洲

한국어 (Korean)
아프리카

idioms:

• South africa    남아프리카 공화국 (수도 Pretoria)

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אפריקה‬

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